Often Irreverent, Mostly Rational Blog for Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. One Day, We'll Be Perfect.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

We Got Ourselves a Losing Streak

One day, you're extrapolating out to a 108 win season, and a few sleepless nights later, you're trying to remember what a win feels like.

We're in a losing streak, friends.

And this is no garden variety losing skid. This is a junk-caught-in-a-zipper level of frustrating pain. Losing on dodgy calls, extraordinary pitching performances and ugly, late inning implosions is enough to drive you a little bit crazy, even this early in the season.

Being a glass-half-full type (okay, probably not really, but for the sake of argument, let's pretend I am), we'd say this: The Jays have been in every game they've played this season, and aside from the bullpen meltdown, there hasn't been a lot of truly bad play over this past spell. So relax. It's all gonna come back to us soon enough.

(And if you are really a cynical monster who feeds off negativity, here's a quick hit for you: Holy shit, are Lind/Hill/Snider ever going to make good contact with a ball again? Because we can't remember the ast time they weren't feebly fouling something off or swinging through a fastball.)

Purcey SnatchersLet's get one thing clear straight away: David Purcey is 28 years old. He might stick around for another 10 years in the bigs, occasionally having a halfway decent year of getting lefties out (à la Arthur Rhodes). But he is what he is at this point, and for a team that building towards a brighter future, there are better options for the Jays, even if Purcey's controlability and affordability are taken into account.

There may well be a few suitors for his services, as Alex Anthopoulos intimated to the beat corps, which means that the Jays might be able to finagle a bit of Minor League depth out of this set of circumstances.

We know that you're all sick of our professions of love for him, but remember that Jo-Jo Reyes is two years younger. Plus, Marc Rzepczynski is three years younger, as is Brad Mills.

Purcey deserved a shot at showing what he had this year, and if roster pressure wasn't what it is, then maybe a longer look would be in order. But having too many arms for too few roster spots is just about the nicest problem we can think of having.

best wishes to Mr. Purcey with his next organization. It's hard to feel too bad about losing him, given how many other guys i'm interested in seeing get a crack at a BP spot. if he clears waivers then i would like to see him stick around and force his way back up.

after the hot starts and steady declines in recent years i actually don't mind these early season heartbreaks. i'd like to see this team learn how to win the close ones. if the worm has already turned and they go on to lose 11 out of the next 15 then that's a different story.

One real bright spot for ms has been watching JPA at the plate. His hits have been hard and his outs have been loud. And he's not going to be a .400 OBP guy, but his plate discipline has been a lot better than I'd expected after reading so much about his free-swinging ways.

It's easy to get overly negative after a few frustrating losses, but the Jays have been in every game so far this year. The upcoming stretch of tough games should be fun to watch, at least. They certainly have a chance to come out of it with a positive record.